Choice
by MissTerie
Summary: The time has come. Now, it was either his loyalty or the fate he was raised to fullfil. Is he willing to do whatever it takes?


**A/N: Wow, thank God this one hasn't been killed yet. Unlike the show unfortunately. **

**This has nothing to do with anything really, I haven't even watched the whole series yet. Just a crazy idea I had last night when I was having a stupid influx of ideas.**

**I really feel stupid for never finishing anything but starting stuff every now and then. Anyway here it goes.**

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Choice

The time has come. Now, it's either his loyalty or the fate he was raised to fullfil. Can he do what it takes?

That's one of the many questions Jack asks himself as he walks into this doomed room where the day light was slowly leaving him and the atmosphere was very dim.

He walked slowly, trembling softly, adjusting his eyes to the dim light at his every step. It wasn't long before the outside lights left him for good and he was completely inside this room that was more apropriate for a horror movie than the image his father showed of Gilboa.

He remembers the first time he had come here, guided by his mom, with Michelle to his side. His father was absent, at a reunion or something, no one had ever really told him what his father was doing that day. They thought it wouldn't matter for a shallow boy like him. Actually, he thinks to himself, I was the one that didn't matter.

That day he had to be the man. He had to hold his sister's hand and comfort her as she trembled when they'd entered the room, and then embrace her as she cried, horrified by the sight of the tombs. In that time, it was even more horrific, not because he is more mature now, but because now electric light, though still dim to maintain the secret atmosphere that shoudln't be broken, replaced the the almost inexistent light the candles gave then.

Jack retreated back to reality quickly as he saw that shadow. Good, he was already here.

He thought back to his way down here while he walked forward towards the blonde man that was standing in front of him, dressed in a uniform of own troops, his back to him.

Jack had walked here. He needed the cold air of this rough autumn twilight to clear his mind. He wasn't in good spirits obviously. He knew this was the moment. He had given up more than he ever wanted to, and now this was the only things left to do. It wasn't easy for him to think of the act he was about to make, but it would never be harder than saying goodbye to the life of freedom he had once dreamed for himself, or to the only love of his life. But he had to choose, he couldn't have both. And now that he already lost everything else, it was time to fullfil what he had always known was his destiny. No matter what the cost was.

He let one last tear fall as he stood in front of the ancient, horror house like building. The person he was about to become had no right to cry, to feel even.

Jack took one last long breath and walked in.

Now he was inside, the man was in front of him, just some stepts away. He can see him clearly now. Every line of his uniform, every hair in his head. He felt the gun in his back pocket and then took it out slowly. For a moment, he even considered just doing it, right now, without seeing his honest, pleading face, but something stopped him at the last minute.

Jack took another breath, but it came out louder than he would have wanted. He took another step as David Sheperd turn, fliching at the sight of him and his gun, not yet pointed at anything.

This was becoming harder. It wasn't like he had never commited merder before, but then they were war enemies, faces without a name, that meant nothing to him.

This man was different. He was his ally, the one who had saved his life countless times before, the one his loyalty should lie with. The one he should be offering his life to, not the other way around.

He tried to look away from his honest eyes. They were frightened, with a sense of betrayal that was just his right to feel. At some point he looked closer, not noticing he had gotten the gun positioned, pointed at his heart, his eyes were a very ironic sight now: they mirrowed his sister's. For a moment, he thought he way delirious, he was seeing the face of his sister in the one of the man he had sworn to himself he was about to kill. Maybe, as God can be quite the ironic prankster sometimes, this was due to the place where the gun aimed at, the place where the two of them were more together than apart.

Jack coudn't erase the face of Michelle from his sight and it was killing him. He couldn't stand causing her pain like he knew this would. He had always been like that, Michelle had always had a spot in his heart like she had one on his father's- She was the one they could never deny, they would always protect. This went against all of his lifelong actions towards her.

Jack knew David was good for her. He had given her the happiness she had lacked mosto f her like, even when they were apart. He had given her one more reason to live, beside helping people, a selfish one he thought she wasn't even capable of having. Most of all, he knew this David Sheperd would always cherish and protect Michelle the way he never could. Maybe he was just more deserving.

It was this moment of doubt that changed everything. Suddenly, his mind was as clear as if the room was suddenly turned into na airy, outiside room, lightened by the Sun, and not just some poor lamps.

Maybe this was the cost. Hurting his sister. Going against God's will and what he had planned. And though he was not religious like his parents, his sister's happiness was too much of a sacrifice. And if her happiness depended on David, maybe he was truly deserving of this destiny he had always been taught to believe was his.

Jack kneeled down, simply, and dropped his gun at the other man's feet. He then got up and walked away, silently, with his head down, ashamed. He knew what he had done was the right thing, he had chosen his loyalty and his heart, but now he was ashamed that he had once lost his heart and thought of doing something so horrible. He had not pondered right, and he could have sacrificed more than himself, more than he had the right to.

Jack almost wished for Sheperd to take his gun and shoot him in the back, like he had thought of doing himself once. Perhaps unluckily for him, David wasn't that kind of man. He was free to continue walking, and soon after he was outside.

It wasn't much brighter here. It was nighttime and it was raining. The pouring rain ran though Jack leaving him soaking wet, but he didn't care. He needed to wash way the guilt, the shame. He needed to clear his mind once again and ponder his next move.

He decided he would leave. Maybe not just the town of Shiloh, but perhaps the whole country. There was no way he could live here, after what he'd done. He'd sacrificed too much and now there was nothing left for him.

He had made a choice. And now he had to live with it.

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**A/N: Thank God this is done! I couldn't have it on me much longer. It was too dark to let me sleep right I think.**

**Please don't hate me for the killing scene. He didn't even do it anyway (COWARD! LOL)**

**Hope you liked it anyway. And reviews would be very nice. =)**

**PS: I just watched episode 9…it broke my little heart into pieces…just so ya'll know.**


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